As enterprise computing and networks continue to grow, it is often necessary for administrators/owners of these systems to ensure that the images loaded and executed on the network devices have not be altered or tampered with my malicious parties. In certain deployments, such as government and financial networks, for example, there is a requirement that network devices provide secure and continuous services. This, however, can be difficult to enforce, particularly when the software running on customer premises equipment (“CPE”) needs to be upgraded or patched due to security concerns. Given the central role that network devices serve in the operation of critical infrastructures, therefore, an owner/administrator of a network device may need to authenticate any software running on the device prior to deploying it.